What do we expect?
A Special Report for Education
www.sas.com/education
WHAT DO WE EXPECT?
Dr. Vince Tinto, professor
of higher education at
Syracuse University, suggests that teachers and
leaders in higher education should invite a diverse
group of students to dinner and then ask them
about their learning journeys. During dinner, Tinto
suggests, just be quiet and eat, ask and listen. You
will see more than just the humorous maxim, “If you
feed them, they will come,” demonstrated—because
the students will also share. Their responses will
vary widely, from affirming to insightful to inane to
downright stunning. If you leave the conversational
space open, the students will fill it with the good,
the bad and the ugly.
As students, faculty and education leaders debrief from these conversations,
you often hear them echo the refrain, “What do we expect?” Think of the
broader world in which these students live—one of rapid changes, high
expectations and diverse backgrounds—and their responses make sense.
We engage in, hear about and help institutions respond to these
conversations. The expectations from students, trustees, community
members, legislators, faculty and staff cascade our way in the form
of project plans, RFPs, side conversations and desperate phone calls.
Regardless of how they are communicated, it’s clear that the following
expectations are changing and challenging the education world.
EDUCATION 2
A SPECIAL REPOR T FOR EDUCATION
Stability
People don’t want to hear the history of technology’s evolution at their
institution. They just want the stuff to work. Faculty members want the
data projectors to project, students want the online courses to load, and
employees want the HR system to produce a paycheck. Educators and
students are losing patience with the cutting edge; they just want the
edge to cut. Given this rising penchant for what’s real and stable, it’s not
surprising that University of Phoenix, Walden University, and now, Western
Governors University are seeing strong growth. All three institutions
leverage technology-enabled learning tools, but they have also combined
the tools with the ultimate symbol of stability in the education world—
accreditation.
EDUCATION 3
WHAT DO WE EXPECT?
Connection
The results of Casey Green’s 2004 Campus Computing Survey (www.
campuscomputing.net) make it clear that information silos not only still
exist in higher education; they are becoming more complex and discrete.
However, the students, faculty and administrators we serve at colleges
and universities have little use for disconnected systems that don’t work
and can’t play well together. Again, if airlines, pharmacies and credit
card companies can integrate their storefront, online and Web services,
the faculty, staff and students of each institution fully expect the same
experience on campus. It’s bad enough for a student to have to visit five
buildings to complete an on-campus registration process; having to log in
and access three online, disconnected systems throughout the semester
is also trying students’ patience. These expectations of readily available
connections are being ratcheted up to include interinstitutional connections.
Increasingly, students, community members and legislators want K-12,
community college and university silos to be connected. Middle college,
dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, transfer and career integration
programs are being showcased and used as never before—and technology
is often a key bridge in these endeavors.
EDUCATION 4
A SPECIAL REPOR T FOR EDUCATION
Integration
Everyone on campus wants more seamless integration. Our discrete
processes and procedures—pay-for-online, over-the-phone, in-class learning
or other services—are our issues, not our students. What is becoming
increasingly clear is that educators intend to blend these service modes.
While we may currently call it “hybrid” or “blended” learning, soon we will
just consider it modern education with different tools. Moreover, students
want to see programs that are more integrated. Given that students are
increasingly swirling in and out of education—achieving multiple credentials
at different times in their lives—many of them crave programmatic integration
(e.g., certifications that build to diplomas to degrees).
EDUCATION 5
WHAT DO WE EXPECT?
Customization
“Our students have Amazon.com expectations,” say higher education
leaders, and students are not alone. The administration, faculty and staff
at colleges are bringing their personalized experiences with TiVo, eBay,
iTunes and online banking to work with them. In short, they don’t just want
access to services; they want more direct services. Faculty members and
counselors often initiate these conversations. They want to be able to
better target tools and techniques to different students based on wants
and needs. They want these tools at their disposal and at their students’
fingertips. What they don’t want is “vanilla” technology and services that
are sent their way as an afterthought.
EDUCATION 6
A SPECIAL REPOR T FOR EDUCATION
Answers
Google has raised the bar. We have become used to doing complex
research on almost any topic, at all hours of the night and in the comfort of
our own homes. No more treks to the library or visits to IT that leave you
frustrated or at the mercy of information gatekeepers. Students, faculty,
staff and administration are used to getting answers, and now they want
them from our technology systems. Faculty members want to ask questions
about curricula effectiveness, while counselors want to explore the impact
of interventions. Students want to see up-to-date information about
how they’re doing and where the road ahead may lead. In Lisa Petrides’
new book, Turning Knowledge into Action, published by the League
for Innovation, she refers to this as a rising “culture of inquiry” in higher
education. What better place for this expectation to arise than in education,
where the core value of critical thinking can be applied to this very process.
EDUCATION 7
WHAT DO WE EXPECT?
Value
Patience with the investment side of technology has long since passed.
The “dot-bomb” era helped seal that fate. From college CIOs to first-year
students, everyone wants to see the value of the time, effort and money
they are putting into technology. If they don’t see that value promptly,
they are quickly frustrated. The Educause Center for Applied Research
(ECAR) recently produced a report about student perceptions of the use of
technology in education. One painful observation—made again and again in
the research—was that students often felt that there was little value in how
some technology tools were used. In fact, they felt some were just for show.
“Death by PowerPoint” was the exact term used. Major technology systems
that aren’t used to their full potential receive much harsher assessments.
EDUCATION 8
A SPECIAL REPOR T FOR EDUCATION
Authenticity
The book, The Cluetrain Manifesto, arguably offers the harshest attack on
inauthentic messaging and leadership in the corporate world. According to
its authors, “Markets are getting smarter, faster, than at any time in human
history.” They bluntly state that people just don’t believe anything that is
communicated in company press releases, advertisements or promotions.
Consumers check out the facts on their own through Consumer Reports
Online (www.consumerreports.org), Epinions (www.epinions.com), listservs
or vast networks of friends. In addition, Jim Collins, in one of the hottest
leadership books on the market, Good to Great, argues that the myth of
the charismatic leader is just that—a myth. His research supports the true
transformational power of deferential, authentic and focused leaders.
In the education world, Parker Palmer challenges faculty members with the
same Emersonian notion in The Courage to Teach. He makes the point that
“who we are” will overpower any teaching technique or technology tool in
changing students’ lives and improving their learning. People are as sick
of true believers overpromising and underdelivering as they are of caustic
cynics raging against almost any change. Faculty, staff, administration
and students crave real conversations about how to improve learning
journeys, whether they are technology-enabled or not. Projects such as
EDUCATION 9
WHAT DO WE EXPECT?
the Lumina Foundation’s Achieving the Dream (www.luminafoundation.
org/grants/atdfaqs.html) and such organizations as the Continuous
Quality Improvement Network (www.cqin.org) are taking on this challenge
by asking difficult questions about how to improve student access and
success by working collectively to answer these questions. Technology
may be able to help in this work, but neither high-tech nor low-tech
strategies will have any significant impact unless dedicated professionals
use them with authenticity.
Whether expressed by students, trustees, faculty or staff, these
expectations resonate with us. More important, they are clearly spurring
activities, efforts, plans and projects. And what do we expect? Educators
care most about making a difference; and responding to these rising
expectations may help us all do just that.
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EDUCATION 10
Mark David Milliron, Ph.D.
Vice President, SAS Education Practice
www.sas.com/education
Mark.Milliron@sas.com
H. Russell Griffith
President and CEO, Datatel Inc.
www.datatel.com
Russ_Griffith@datatel.com
Additional Reading
Campus Computing Survey
www.campuscomputing.net
Lumina Foundation’s Achieving the Dream
www.luminafoundation.org/grants/atdfaqs.html
Continuous Quality Improvement Network
www.cqin.org
Turning Knowledge into Action
Lisa Petrides
The Cluetrain Manifesto
Christopher Locke, Rick Levine and Doc Searls
The Courage to Teach
Parker Palmer
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